How do I (or can I) blueprint a tank?

[SkiCarver]

Hello to the great and good of the Factorio forum.

I want to create a blueprint that contains a tank, is this possible?

I ask as I want a refuelling and rearming station where I can leave my tank while I work on my base. To avoid the tank filling with all fuel or all ammo, I have designated the slots for specific items. Unfortunately, I have not been able to create a blueprint of the refuelling station with the tank, a blueprint I want so I do not need to specify the tank contents every time I create a tank. Can anyone tell me if it is possible and if so, how to do it?

Many thanks.

[Qon]

The only vehicles that are blueprintable are trains. And it's on purpose to discourage using tanks as "big chests" and abuse their hitboxes.

You can copy settings from one tank to another like any other entity though. So just have one tank somewhere that you don't use and just sits there as a copy source for when you need new ones.

[SkiCarver]

The only vehicles that are blueprintable are trains. And it's on purpose to discourage using tanks as "big chests" and abuse their hitboxes.

You can copy settings from one tank to another like any other entity though. So just have one tank somewhere that you don't use and just sits there as a copy source for when you need new ones.

Thanks for the reply. Can you explain for me please, how not allowing them to blueprint discourages their use as big chests? i cant see a case where there is a benefit to using tanks over chests.

[Qon]

Can you explain for me please, how not allowing them to blueprint discourages their use as big chests?

If you can't blueprint them you have to place them manually. And doing that hundreds of times is too much boring work that you would probably use trains or something else similar instead. For big factories things that are not blueprintable are basically not used at all as a part of a factory.

[Qon]

i cant see a case where there is a benefit to using tanks over chests.

Tanks take several tiles. So you can insert several items into them and group assemblers around them that all insert and extract from the same tank. That makes really small setups possible that you can't do with 1x1 chests. The point is that they take up more tiles, not that their inventory is bigger. Also, the fact that their inventory is filterable also makes them even more useful for that setup because that way it doesn't fill up with one ingredient and deadlock that setup.

[SkiCarver]

i cant see a case where there is a benefit to using tanks over chests.

Tanks take several tiles. So you can insert several items into them and group assemblers around them that all insert and extract from the same tank. That makes really small setups possible that you can't do with 1x1 chests. The point is that they take up more tiles, not that their inventory is bigger. Also, the fact that their inventory is filterable also makes them even more useful for that setup because that way it doesn't fill up with one ingredient and deadlock that setup.

ok, got it, thanks for clarifying.